In December 2017, mainstream tech media highlighted an issue on Android wear 2.0 devices, where-in it was found that the “Ok Google” detection feature caused lag/freezing issues on wearable devices. Turning off the feature was the only solution (or workaround) so far, but that changes now as Google has fixed whatever was broken.

The confirmation about the fix came from a company employee on Google’s own issue tracking website, where they revealed version 7.19.18.25 of the Google app contains the fix.

Yes, 7.19.18.25arm should contain the fix

Users, both on the issue tracking website as well as Reddit, have confirmed that the above mentioned version of Google app has resolved the problem for them.

For a quick refresher, on enabling the “Ok Google” detection feature, basic functionalities like opening the app launcher or swiping took too long, and the watch lagged noticeably. Android Wear watches including Huawei Watch, LG Urbane/Watch Sport, Fossil Q Explorist/Q Control, and Asus Zenwatch 3 were the ones mainly impacted by the glitch.

It’s good that the issue has been taken care of.

New Ok Google issue, but on phones

While one “Ok Google” detection instigated problem has been taken care of, another one just got acknowledged. This morning, one of the users took to the official Google Search and Assistant help forum to bring it to notice that on enabling the feature in question, the request timed out, and a notification stating no internet connection popped up.

The lucky user got a quick acknowledgement from Google. Andy B (Google employee and also the community Manager at Google Search and Assistant help forum) immediately reverted back to the concerned user, saying

Thanks for reporting this to us, we’re working on it now

While searching for more information, we came across multiple threads where similar “Ok Google” related issues are being highlighted by smartphone users. Most of them are complaining about the feature either not recognizing their voice inputs or randomly turning off itself. Here are some of the user-comments:

I have restarted my phone after a SONY device update and now “ok Google” doesn’t respond to my voice

I use voice assistance a lot through my phone but lately I have been realizing that this feature would automatically turn off by itself and there would be no way to turn it back on (pressing that toggle in the Google Assistant settings does nothing)

For some reason, my “Ok Google” detection on my Pixel 2 XL was disabled. I went into the settings and the option to turn it on was greyed out, along with “Unlock with Voice Match” and “Voice model”

The OK Google trigger command does not work as expected on the LG V20 (H990DS). When the command is spoken with a natural volume, the phone does not seem to pick it up. This does not work with screen off, screen on with Google app in the foreground or screen on with another app in the foreground.

It’s difficult to comment whether or not these “Ok Google” issues are connected. Whatever the case, the feature is indeed broken, as the company has officially acknowledged at-least one problem with it.

While it’s relieving that Google is aware of at-least some issues plaguing “Ok Google”, there’s no known time line as to how long will it take to fix them. We hope they do it sooner than later.

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur